COLOMBO, July 29 (AFP)
- A Scandinavian force monitoring a truce between Sri Lanka's government and
Tamil Tiger rebels Monday admonished the guerrillas over their recruitment of
child soldiers.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission
in a statement expressed hope that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
"live up to the expectations for just governance and responsibility as
regards child recruitment."

In May 1998, the LTTE leadership
told the United Nations it would not use children under 18 in combat.

But the monitors on July 8 had
said they had received 44 complaints that the LTTE had forcibly conscripted
or recruited children into their ranks since a ceasefire went into effect February
23.

The monitors' statement came after
a Sri Lankan human rights group accused the mission of failing to secure the
release of a single child recruit from the Tigers.

The mission is "in part responsible
for misjudgements that have enabled the LTTE to widen the scope of child conscription
under the cover of peace", University Teachers for Human Rights said last
week.

The Sri Lankan government on Saturday
held its first ministerial-level talks with the Tigers under the ceasefire,
at a meeting in London. The two sides are expected to hold formal negotiations
in late August or September in Thailand.

The monitors said the Norwegian-brokered
peace process was showing signs of success.

"Both parties look at war
as a thing of the past. The government and the LTTE are steadfastly preparing
for peace," the monitors' statement said.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission
is a 44-member team drawn from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Associated Press,Mon July 22, 2002 10:50 EDT . SHIMALI SENANAYAKE
- Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) A Sri Lankan human rights
group on Monday accused Tamil rebels of using a cease-fire to forcibly recruit
children as soldiers and criticized Norway-led truce monitors for not doing
enough to stop the practice. The group, founded by teachers in the Tamil heartland
of Jaffna in 1998, keeps track of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka -
's north and east.

It went on to accuse European truce
monitors of being ``in part responsible for misjudgments that have enabled the
LTT (or Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam) to widen the scope of child conscription
under the cover of peace.''

But Teitur Torkelsson, spokesman
for the European mission overseeing a Feb. 22 cease-fire between the government
and rebels, said ``under the truce agreement the monitors have no authority
to punish or take action against those found guilty of forcibly recruiting children.''

``We record at least two complaints
daily of forcible recruitment of children. ... It has been the most common complaint,''
Torkelsson said.

Children are being forced to join
the Tamil Tigers mostly in eastern areas like Ampara and Batticaloa, he said.

There was no immediate response
from the rebels.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting
since 1983 for a separate homeland, saying Sri Lanka - 's 3.2 million minority
Tamils are being discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese.

More than 64,500 people have died
in the 19-year conflict.

Human rights groups and the government
have often accused the Tamil Tigers of forcing families to send their children
to join the rebel ranks.

An Amnesty International team that
visited Sri Lanka - last month also accused the insurgents of using children
as guerrillas, despite a pledge made to U.N. Undersecretary-General Olara Otunnu
in 1998. Otunnu is expected to visit the island next month.

UTHR slams LTTE for child conscription

Frederica Jansz in Colombo,9.45 a.m. SLT Monday July 22. Hot
on the heels of a group of sea Tigers abducting two Scandinavian born ceasefire
monitors, the Jaffna University Teachers Human Rights organization has made
public another, hard-hitting report which severely criticizes the Tigers for
continuing to abduct and conscript children to their armed cadre.

As a result of these incidents
of forced conscription, this report asserts, the confidence the Tamil people
living in Sri Lanka's north and east had in the LTTE is severely dented. The
report has come out a month ahead of the visit of Olara Otunnu, the UN's Special
Rapporteur for Children and Armed Conflict, who, is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka
in August.

During Ottunu's last visit to Sri
Lanka in 1998, the Tigers promised him they would refrain from forcing children
to join their rebel outfit.

Scandinavian born ceasefire monitors
too confirmed that many Tamil parents visit their offices in the Island's north
and east begging them to intervene and bring their children back to them after
they have been kidnapped by the LTTE.

The Sri Lanka Army's Security Forces
Commander for Jaffna, Major General Sarath Fonseka reiterated to 'Lacnet' that
the forced conscription of children by the LTTE is continuing on a large scale.
He said, he is besieged by, Tamil parents who weep at his feet, begging the
army to somehow secure the release of their children from the grip of the Tigers.

The Sri Lanka government appears
to be avoiding addressing this issue publicly and has so far refrained from
doing so apparently accepting the Tigers statements in this regard that they
have stopped recruiting cadre below 18 years of age.

The Jaffna Teachers for Human Rights
in its report released on Saturday July 20,2002, have also slammed the Sri Lankan
and the Norwegian Government for treating this issue with kid gloves.

Meanwhile, opposition parliamentarians
have also begun to voice their suspicion that the LTTE are misleading the government
of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe while seriously violating terms and conditions
in the Ceasefire Agreement.

Shantha Premaratne Member of Parliament
for the main opposition Peoples Alliance confided that the PA is, "deeply
worried the Tigers are only buying time to establish an administrative state
in Sri Lanka's northern peninsula before pulling the rug from beneath the feet
of the government."

Tiger Chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran
appears to be already creating a shadow Tamil state, separate to that of the
Sri Lankan Government. Last week the LTTE placed newspaper advertisements in
Jaffna, calling for Tamil people to apply to the Tigers police force.

The rebel outfit has also increased
its political activity in the country's north and east. The LTTE now runs its
own bus service along the A9 highway and openly taxes travellers and residents
of the north and east, maintaining the money is necessary for the LTTE to smoothly
run its operation.

Tiger pledge
on child soldiers

The United Nations children's agency
says it has received fresh assurances from Tamil Tiger separatists in Sri Lanka
that they will not recruit children under the age of 18.

Human rights groups have repeatedly
accused the Tigers of recruiting boys and girls as young as 12.

Unicef
says it has managed to get more than 60 demobilised throughout the last year.

This is by no means the first time
the Tamil Tigers have promised not to recruit child soldiers.

Four years ago, the rebels promised
the UN special representative for children and armed conflict they would not
recruit anyone under the age of 17.

But at the end of last year, for
example, human rights groups like Amnesty International, said the Tigers had
recruited several hundred children in just a few months, sometimes using coercion.

World watching

What is different about this renewed
commitment by the Tigers is that for the first time in years, outsiders now
have access to rebel territory because of the peace process.

If the Tigers fail to live up to
their assurance this time, the world will not only be watching, but aid workers,
diplomats and journalists will be visiting them to ask what went wrong.

And for the first time, Amnesty
officials are currently visiting rebel areas to discuss the issue of child recruitment,
among others.

In this atmosphere, Unicef says
it wants to keep the issue alive.

It plans to run a centralised database
of cases of alleged child recruitment based on complaints by parents and local
aid organisations.

It says it will continue to try
and secure the release of underage soldiers.

'Child soldiers
recruited in Sri Lanka'

A human rights group in Sri Lanka says the ceasefire between the government
and Tamil Tiger separatists is allowing the rebels to forcibly recruit more
child soldiers, despite the Tigers' promise not to use underage combatants.

The University Teachers for Human
Rights group said in a report, that the five-month cessation of violence had
enabled Tiger guerillas to enter previously inaccessible urban areas.

The report said that rebels were
frequently demanding one child from each household, particularly in the eastern
Batticaloa region.

The Tamil Tigers have repeatedly
denied the use of child soldiers, and assured the United Nations Children's
Fund last month that no one under the age of 18 would be recruited.

The human rights group, Amnesty
International, has warned that the forcible recruitment of children has continued
despite the ceasefire, and called for more to be done to stop the practice.

From the newsroom of the BBC
World Service .

LTTE still drafting children: HR group

PTI [
SUNDAY, JULY 21, 2002 4:12:50 PM ]

COLOMBO: In yet another damning indictment of the
Liberation Tigers, a human rights group of Tamil university teachers has reported
on extensive conscription of children in eastern Sri Lanka, rampant extortion
from the people and use of terror against Muslims.

The University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR-Jaffna),
in its latest report released on Saturday, chronicled continuing instances of
children being whisked away from homes, schools and temples by LTTE recruiters.

It spoke of more attempts by these involuntary recruits
to escape, resulting in "brutal punishment" and, in the case of a
few, death by torture. The group noticed a spurt in child conscription, contrary
to LTTE's assurances to the global community and to Amnesty International last
month.

The arrival of LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman,
wanted by India along with V Prabhakaran for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, in
Batticaloa district on April 24, has given a big thrust to the conscription
drive, it said.

"The mounting problem of escaping conscripts
makes a cruel mockery of LTTE's claim to be a people's movement or the people's
sole representatives," it said adding LTTE's measures against escapees
are becoming markedly more harsh and cruel.

The UTHR report assailed the Government and Norwegian
peace facilitators for pursuing a "crude" peace process, with no commitment
to justice and truth, and criticised the Scandinavian ceasefire monitoring mission
for not doing enough to address mounting human rights concerns.

Olara Otunnu, UN Special Representative for Children
and Armed Conflict, who extracted a promise from LTTE they would not use children
in combat, is due here next month.

LTTE spy chief blamed for recruiting child soldiers

IANS

COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan rights group has charged Pottu
Amman, a Tamil Tiger guerrilla wanted in India, with conscripting children in
the east despite a Norwegian-monitored truce.

The University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) said Pottu Amman was spearheading
a campaign in the island's Batticaloa region to swell the ranks of the group
with youngsters of 16 and below.

Pottu Amman is the feared intelligence chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE), which seeks a homeland for the Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and
east.

Both Pottu Amman - which is a nom de guerre -- and LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran
are wanted in India for the 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv
Gandhi by a woman suicide bomber.

Following Pottu Amman's arrival in Batticaloa in late April, there has been
a sharp increase in conscription," the report said. "Once more...
there are press gangs visiting schools and villages and hauling away screaming
children in tractor-trailers."

Media reports said he had crossed from the north of the island to the east in
April under the cover of the truce deal which allows rebels freedom to move
into areas in the government's control.

"The presence of Pottu Amman (in the east) makes it abundantly clear that
conscription is being orchestrated from the top," the UTHR alleged. Pottu
Amman is among the few in the LTTE who take orders directly from Prabhakaran.

The accusations come ahead of a visit in the next few weeks by Olara Otunnu,
the U.N.'s Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict.

The report describes the trauma of hundreds of children torn from their families
and holed up in rebel training camps.

"In the camp there were children in the age group 12-14 years under training.
Those who express feelings of missing home or wanting their mother are mercilessly
beaten."

The UTHR, which is headed by a Tamil, said some children had been killed during
live firing exercises and their bodies buried. "They are understood as
having the status of 'martyrs'!"

The defence ministry has been reporting lately that children escaping from the
Tigers have sought shelter in police stations and military camps.

Last month, six girls, aged between 13 and 14 years, fled a Tiger training camp
and turned themselves in to police in Sittanday in Batticaloa. They claimed
they were among 80 child soldiers being trained for combat, police said.

Unicef and Amnesty International, the London-based rights watchdog, have repeatedly
lambasted the LTTE for breaking a pledge given to Otunnu in 1998 to halt the
conscription of children.

In its report, the group has also slammed foreign monitors supervising the landmark
truce between the government and the LTTE that was concluded in February.

The truce, arranged by broker Norway, is part of confidence-building measures
taken to smooth the way ahead of peace talks with the guerrillas who have been
fighting for nearly two decades for a separate state. About 60,000 people have
died in the conflict.

"The credibility of the peace process hinges on the issue of child conscription
because all that is palpably going wrong is intimately linked to it," the
UTHR said.

"The strength of the Norwegian role lies in a realisation by the LTTE that
it is in a hostile international climate with limited options," it said,
saying Oslo should specifically prohibit child recruitment in the truce deal.